PLAN. OBSERVE. ADJUST.
Being prepared to adapt to the always changing needs of your athletes
At various times over the last few months, I have started a training session with what I believed to be the ‘Perfect Plan’ (which is a laughable statement for any coach in the profession to make) only to take one look at the athletes and think “oh no, this will not work.” Different teams with different factors coming into play that cause alarm to me and the plan I have on paper.
Whether it was a morning session following a few fall league games or an afternoon session immediately after a physical practice — it’s occurred with basketball, soccer, and wrestling programs just in the last few weeks. If we stick to the plan in these instances it does not mean we are necessarily putting the athlete in any harm, especially at the school age level, but our job is to put them in the best possible position to be successful on the field, court, or mat.
Added stress on top of a poorly recovered athlete will not elicit the adaptations that you program for. As a young strength coach, I have made the choice to stick to the plan at times and later become frustrated at the lack of effort or poor movement quality. All because I had my blinders on to the reality of the current condition of the athletes.
This led to a double negative — first the athletes had a poor session that physically did not help them and secondly, it leaves them mentally defeated heading into the next practice or training session.
When making the choice to adjust the program to the athletes condition in these instances, I have found the opposite to be true. First, the athletes leave the session physically feeling much better than when they arrived and secondly they leave with confidence and energy that leads into the next practice or training session.
So how and when do we adjust the program?
PLAN
The easiest way to minimize adjustments in your programming is to plan for it. Plan for the fall league, club practices, three-day weekends and exams/testing. If you know these are going to be factors that could effect stress and recovery of the athlete, plan for it from the beginning. Adjust the training intensities and volume following these events, plan for more time on the front and end of the session to address mobility and recovery strategies.
Another part of the planning process is implementing recovery education for the athletes. Educate the athletes on the importance of sleep, water, and nutritional habits and how this can minimize the effects of higher stress events. Nutritional and recovery strategies can be found here.
OBSERVE
There are many tools that can be used to measure an athlete’s readiness. I have seen some coaches use questionnaires or surveys regarding — sleep, nutrition, fatigue, and soreness levels. Higher level programs utilize GPS systems to track practice volumes and make adjustments. Other coaches have even used a jump mat to measure each athletes vertical in comparison to their personal best to measure neuromuscular readiness and fatigue.
All of those are great tools and some are more practical than others for the school aged setting and number of athletes in each coach’s situation, but the one that I value the most for the betterment of the program and each athlete is relationships.
Open dialogue between yourself and the athletes can be the most beneficial in determining how well they are recovered and ready to train. This can be difficult early on as some athletes will ‘always’ be ready out of fear of appearing weak in front of their coach. Others will do the opposite and ‘always’ be poorly recovered and campaign for an adjustment.
As the relationship and trust grows, athletes will realize that the dialogue will be used to benefit them where it matters — in competition. No better feeling than a group coming in feeling flat, tight, and sore but leaving the session feeling strong, fast, and mobile.
The second part to this relationship is observing the athlete themselves. How are they practicing? How are they carrying themselves walking into the facility? How are they moving throughout PAP or sprint drills? Combining these observations with the dialogue created can give you the most well rounded sense of their physical condition. From there you can make the adjustments necessary.
ADJUST
When it comes time to adjust the plan, this does not mean it is time to abandon ship entirely. Simple modifications during the warm up or PAP can give you further information as to what exactly will need adjusting in the session. You may find that by spending more time mobilizing the hips or taking a more gradual approach to ramping up the CNS, that the athletes are actually in better shape than you originally thought.
Other adjustments may be as easy as knocking a set or two off of the main lifts and limiting the volume on auxiliary exercises. Simply taking the bar off of their shoulders and replacing it with a dumbbell in goblet position of the same exercise could make all the difference.
There are also options to make a more individualized approach. You may find that only a third of the athletes are sluggish while the other two thirds are ramped up and ready to go. In this instance, rep ranges or intensity ranges give the athlete the freedom to train based on their own status.
This takes a deep trust from coach to athlete as some “lazy” athletes will stay on the lighter end and some of your harder workers may push to the more intense range while not being recovered enough to do so efficiently. Another reason why this relationship is so important.
Stress will always be placed on the athletes and much of it outside of our control. So the stress that we can control should be adjusted to assist the athletes ability to do what they love which is compete and perform on the field, court, or mat.
Plan for the things you can, make observations of the things you cannot, and adjust what is needed with the mindset of always putting the athlete first!
